Lyanna
by Ingabritta
Summary: I wanted to write about Lyanna if she would survive. Short scenes.
1. Chapter 1

**Lyanna (eng)**

The carriage went slowly on the bumpy road. It was pulled by two horses, the calmest they had found, and the men accompanying it sometimes lost their patience having to wait for it. Inside Eddard Stark rested on the matrass beside his sister, still tired and weary from the puppy milk and his slowly healing wounds. Lyanna slept calmly. She held her little son tight to her breast, and he whined quietly. He wasn't a child to make much noise, and the company had not attracted any attention as they passed. Ned saw a tuft of the boy's black hair, and smiled. A son of his could look like that, black hair as a Stark. They said that Robb, his first born son whom he had not yet seen, had Catelyn's red hair.

Ned was thinking about what would happen when they finally arrived at Winterfell. How it would be to see Cat again, and the boy. Then he thought about the woman at his side. Had he made the right decision? Howland Reed had offered to take Lyanna and Jon home, where they could hide, and perhaps, when things were safe, let them make the journey across the sea. Instead Ned had made another decision – to bring Lyanna home. Surely this was as mad as the one Lyanna once made, to escape with Rhaegar.

Half asleep Ned relived again the assault of the Tower of Joy, when they finally had found out where she was. How they found the strength to kill the King's guards, men he once knew but who now were the enemy. How they found Lyanna in the tower, screaming in agony, with a woman to help her. On the bed lay a red, crying little mite, tucked in a blanket, but his sister still writhed in pain. Howland had torn off his armor, washed his hands in the water and pressed Lyanna's stomach, and something blue and pale came out, and then a bloody lump.  
-The navel-string, the woman said.

Howland took it off the child's neck.  
-This on is dead, he said. Choked by the navel-string. But the afterbirth has come.

He turned to the woman.  
-Quick, get more water!

While Howland cut the navel-string with his sword Ned kneeled beside his sister.  
-Lyanna, you are alive! I was so worried, we all were. Why did you do this?

Her gaze was empty when she looked at him.  
-Rhaegar?  
-He's dead, don't you know?

Her eyes wandered.  
-They told me, but I didn't believe them. He was not supposed to die. Nobody was supposed to die.

Ned didn't know what to say. Did she know how many who had died? For a mad whim?

-The child? Lyanna said, turning to Howland.  
-There are two of them. The boy is alive, the girl is dead.  
-May I see her?

Howland hesitated, but then passed the dead girl, wrapped in a blanket. A few strands of blond hair grew on her head. Tears ran down Lyanna's cheeks.  
-Rhaegar's daughter.  
-You have a son too, mylady. He seems strong and alert.

He showed her the boy, head covered with black hair.  
-He's mine, Lyanna said softly. Look at his hair. Nobody can see that Rhaegar is his father.

The woman entered with more water and began to wash Lyanna. Ned gave her to drink.  
Then he turned to the woman.  
-You stay here. You must never tell what happened in this room, do you understand?

Ned and Howland had buried the dead men and the stillborn child. When Lyanna was strong enough they started the journey back. They also brought the woman to prevent her from talking. With great care Ned had spoken to his sister to find out how much she knew.  
-Rhaegar told me at last, she whispered. About Brandon and father and the mad king. He almost didn't dare, because he thought I would leave him. But it was too late anyway, and I was as much to blame as he was. Their blood is on my hands, Ned, I should have died.

He consoled her.  
-Rhaegar was not responsible for his father's deeds. And Brandon acted rashly.  
-He said he would come back for me and our child, but he didn't come. Robert murdered him.

She sighed deeply.  
-Robert must never know about Jon, never. Promise me that.  
-Jon?  
-We agreed to call him that. You will hide him and protect him, will you not?

Ned's head hurt. Had he promised his sister to hide the child of the traitor from his friend? Who was friend and who was foe these days? Should he had sent them to Greywater? But he wanted Lyanna at Winterfell. What Cat would say he couldn't even imagine.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Arya watched Robb and Jon fighting. She so wanted to be part of it. Jon had given her a sword of her own, but she didn't dare to fight. She was too young – and she was a girl. Instead she should be sewing or discussing music and dresses with Sansa and the other girls, but she didn't want to. She was just like her aunt Lyanna.

Arya looked at the Maester's tower, where her aunt lived. She had lived there all Arya's life, but Arya knew she had another life a long time ago. And it was a _secret_ that she lived here, although everybody knew. The common talk was that she was a bit deranged, as a result of all that she had suffered. Evil rumors said that she was the cause of the war seventeen year ago, when she eloped with the crown prince and Arya's uncle and grandfather were murdered by the mad king, when King Robert killed prince Rhaegar and the kingslayer killed the mad king. Father had rescued aunt Lyanna from her captivity and brought her to Winterfell, where she now lived, partly mad from causing so many deaths.

Arya knew this was not true. Aunt Lyanna was intelligent and witty and very like Arya. They had laughed together over their mutual sewing inability, and Lyanna had shown her some of her own failures. Instead she had loved riding and sword fighting, but she did none of this nowadays. She hardly dared to go out, and only took short strolls around the yard alone with her guard. She was afraid the king would come to abduct her.

Sometimes she showed Arya poems she had written and recited ballads she remembered. Tears always ran down her cheeks when she told Arya about what her prince had sang to her. Sometimes she whispered his name, softly: Rhaegar. Seventeen years has passed since he died, but he lived inside her. Sansa, who was the romantic kind, never grew tired of telling the romantic version: The noble and poetic prince had fallen madly in love with aunt Lyanna at the tournament of Harrenhal. She too was infatuated and they eloped, in spite of him being married and she betrothed to Lord Robert. They lived happily in their Tower of Joy, and she bore him a daughter, who died.

-Happily, indeed, Arya answered. Uncle Brandon and grandfather took off to the king to take her back, and the king murdered them. Robert started a war and killed Rhaegar. Aunt Lyanna was very unhappy, and it was lucky her daughter died, otherwise she too would have been killed, like Rhaegar's other children. It was good father found her, or she would have died too.

Arya saw her aunt looking out her window. She too watched the fighting, and it seemed to Arya that she mostly looked at Jon. They were very alike, same color of hair, same eyes. Arya herself had the same hair, but not the eyes. Lyanna liked very much when Jon visited her. Perhaps it was because mother didn't like him, a bastard father had brought home at the same time he arrived with aunt Lyanna. 'The war can make a man loose his mind' father had explained to mother 'and when we arrived at that inn and the woman told me I was the father of her child I could not deny it. He had my looks, and Lyanna wanted a child to look after instead if the one who died.' Perhaps her mother suspected the same thing as she did herself – that Jon was Lyanna's son, whom she had to hide.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Lyanna was paler than usual when she had listened to Ned.  
-He cannot come here. He may not see me.  
-He knows you are here. There is nothing he can do now. He couldn't refuse to marry Cersei then, and he can't divorce her now. He has no idea Jon is your son.

Lyanna shivered.  
-I cannot see him. I cannot lay eyes on the man who killed Rhaegar.

Ned sighed.  
-It's so long ago. Cat sees you here, every day, although she has never forgotten what happened to Brandon. It was war, it was madness.  
-Which I started.

Ned put his arms around his sister.  
-We will lock you in. He will not come to see you.

Xx

Lyanna sat in front of the fire, half asleep. She was tired of reading. She heard the guards talking outside one of the doors. Then the small door at the other end of the room flew open, and there he was, filling the whole doorway. She opened her mouth to scream, but he held out his hand.  
-Please don't scream. Just give me a moment.

She saw the great sadness in his eyes, and she remain quiet.  
-You were always My Lady. I would have been happy with you. Why did you do this? You are not mad, as they say, you look fantastic.

Lyanna did not remember him like this at all.  
-My father sold me to you, I didn't want you. Rhaegar took me by surprise, I fell in love at once, he talked me into it.  
-Did he abduct you? Did he violate you?

Lyanna shook her head, slightly smiling.  
-Never. He loved me. We loved each other.  
-And still he started a war.

Lyanna grew angry.  
-It wasn't him. It was his mad father, and you. You started the war.  
-To revenge your father and brother. And others.. This was in the past. Lyanna, my love, will you not come back to me?

Her eyes widened.  
-Should I let you touch me with the hands that killed my beloved? Never. Besides, you are already married.  
-So was Rhaegar. Cersei is nothing. She doesn't want me.  
-But you wanted others, all the time. I am sorry you never got what you wanted. We cannot reverse the time. I stay here, a shadow of the one I once was. You have seen me. Can I ask you to leave, before I call the guards?

Robert looked at her.  
-Thank you for listening to me. I'm glad you have a good life. You will always remain the one I love.

He made a stiff bow and left. Lyanna let down her shoulders, which she felt were very tense. It was done.

Not long after, Ned arrived.  
-Was he here? He left us and we couldn't catch up. Did the guards protect you?

She shook her head.  
-We talked. It was for the best. I was not afraid of him when he stood before me. He was so sad. I can never be the way he wants, but now perhaps he can stop thinking of me. Perhaps I dare to go riding again. Be together with Jon. As long as none of them understand the truth.  
-It's safe with us. The woman is dead and I trust Howland.  
-But people can guess. I have a strong feeling Arya does. But I trust her.


End file.
